Drayk Bowen solidifies himself as the starter for Notre Dame football

SOUTH BEND – Entering the 2024 season, Notre Dame football had secured a starting linebacker spot with graduate Jack Kiser.

The other two were up for grabs among a host of younger faces, with mostly sophomores and freshmen competing in spring and fall camp to see who would secure those starting spots.

Sophomore Drayk Bowen eventually secured one of those positions, transitioning from his MIKE linebacker spot to becoming a key fixture. He will need to continue his solid performance on Wednesday when the No. 7 Irish (12-1) faces No. 7 Georgia (11-2) in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans (8:45 p.m. ET). , ESPN).

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“He’s just calm, right?” Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden said of Bowen. “Consistent and continuous improvement – a really, really difficult concept for young people. It’s easy to talk about it, but it’s really hard to do it. To be the same guy every day and continue to progress and keep going.”

Earn your playing time

Bowen came to Notre Dame after winning the 2022 Indiana Mr. Football Award at Andrean High School in the northwest Indiana city of St. John. He was a two-sport star for the 59ers, which he carried over to his time with the Irish. He saw limited playing time for Notre Dame baseball last spring, where he was used primarily as a pinch runner for a rebuilding Irish program.

He saw the football field in 12 of 13 games as a freshman in 2023, but did not play. He was primarily used on special teams and finished the season with 14 tackles.

However, the graduations of JD Bertrand and Marist Liufau created competition at the linebacker spot this offseason, and Bowen was able to capitalize on it. He is just one of six Notre Dame players to have started all 13 games so far this season, recording 56 tackles (third-best on the team) and one sack.

“The biggest challenge has been learning all the different offenses you’ll see every week,” Bowen said of becoming a full-time starter. “No two insults are really the same. They all specialize in one or two runs that have some similarities but are not all the same. That’s the biggest challenge from week to week: finding out which team is doing what.

“You see so many things throughout the year that you prepare for everything and have an answer for everything.”

While Kiser is the leader of the linebacking corps, Bowen steps in and signals the play calls to his teammates when Kiser is not on the field. Bowen is expected to take on those duties full-time next season.

“He says better when he has the green dot,” Golden said, referring to the button on the helmets of players on the field that calls plays. “I just think he’s a lot better with his hands when he gets out of blocks and sees it. I’m just really happy about him and for him because he put a lot into it.”

Adapting to a four-man rotation

While Bowen and junior Jaylin Sneed ultimately won the starting linebacker spots, the Irish used a five-man rotation at the position for most of the season, rotating in freshman Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa and sophomore Jaiden Ausberry.

However, that suffered a setback towards the end of the season when Viliamu-Asa was sidelined with a right knee injury. He missed the regular-season finale against USC and the first playoff game against Indiana and is questionable whether he will play against Georgia on Wednesday.

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“He was an integral part and it was hard not having him,” said Bowen of Viliamu-Asa. “We changed our rotation a little bit and hope to get him back at some point. … We’ve slowly gotten used to a new rotation and currently have four linebackers.”

How high school prepared Bowen for this phase

While the stakes are much higher in a College Football Playoff, Bowen knows what it’s like to make long postseason runs in football. He won a Class 2A state championship at Andrean in 2021 and was a state runner-up in 2022.

That’s 15 consecutive fall games each, which is just one fewer than the number of contests Notre Dame would play if they reached the national championship game.

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